Feds End Court Case Against Apple in San Bernadino Shooter Case: They Found a Way to Decrypt Shooter’s iPhone Without Apple’s Help

An Israeli company is rumored to have stepped forward and helped the FBI gain access to a locked iPhone that was used by one of the San Bernadino shooters, so the Department of Justice ended it’s court case to compel Apple to assist them.

While it’s good that they’ve gotten the information they needed, it’s still a very troubling situation.

Now Apple has to worry about this hack that defeated their much-vaunted security measures.   And the government may not want to give their back door away for Apple to patch.

That’s for them to sort out.  I think Apple made the correct move in refusing to assist the government in this case, as creating backdoors is just asking for hackers to steal the information and exploit it.   Someone always profits from stolen information.

What good is security if it’s full of holes and can be exploited by anyone?  That’s what would have happened if Apple had put back doors into their iPhone operating systems.  Software is available for employers to override passcodes on iPhones if someone is using a company phone.  The Health Department that the shooter worked for did not put the applications on their company phone, even though they had paid for it.

It’s unfortunate that our smartphones have become pawns in a much bigger game of national security vs. personal liberty.   Nature of the beast, I guess.

When the Federal Government Went After the Italian Mobs in New York City, Who Did They Approach to Infiltrate the Mafias? ITALIANS! So Why is There Such a Backlash Against Having Muslims Do The Same Thing?

The liberal political establishment has been blasting the GOP presidential candidates for suggesting that they’d go into Muslim neighborhoods and recruit Muslims to report on extremists in their communities.

Excuse me, but that’s PRECISELY what the federal government did when they went after the Five Families in New York City.  They didn’t just recruit any Joe Blow off the streets, they recruited Italians and Sicilians to be informers.

The libs need to get off their high horses and get with the program and protect the country.   I detest the mess that they’ve made out of the immigration debate, and the fact that they’re attacking the Republicans for trying to clean up the failed policies of the current Administration.  And I especially detest that the author of those failures is leading the criticism of his potential successors for daring to clean up his mess.

Who knows, they might find a lot of cooperation in the Muslim communities, who have opened the doors of their mosques to law enforcement already.

We don’t want to be like Europe.  Their model is failing right before our eyes, and people who are doing nothing but going about their business are being blown up by an enemy that we’re supposedly “winning” against.  Thanks a lot, Mr. President.  What’s it going to take to get your attention, a huge bomb attack in Times Square?

I also found it very interesting that Obama criticized Cruz and attacked his new friends, the Castros, in the same speech.   I wonder if he said the same thing to their faces while he was on his vacation to Cuba?

Now the Secretary of Defense Has an Email Problem: Will He Get Off Scot-Free Like Hillary Clinton Has So Far, Or Will He Be Prosecuted?

I don’t get it.

The Secretary of Defense saw what was happening with Hillary Clinton and the amount of trouble she’s in for using personal email for official government business, yet he continued to do exactly the same thing with his own personal email for months after Secretary Clinton’s problems became public knowledge.

What was he thinking?  In many cases, Department of Defense communications are even more sensitive than State Department ones are. 

Now we’ll see if there’s a difference in how her scandal has been treated by the feds as compared to what happens to him.  If he’s prosecuted immediately, or forced to resign, we’ll know that the fix is in.  Actually, we already know that the feds have been avoiding taking aggressive steps against Clinton as she’s the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.  If they prosecute, her campaign derails.

We’ll be watching this situation with great interest.

If Companies Want Us to Stop Using Ad Blocker Programs, Then They Should Stop Putting Battery-Draining, Invasive, Cookie-Depositing, Bandwidth-Hogging, Computer Slowing Ads That Don’t Respect Privacy on the Web: Did I Miss Anything?

I read over on CNET that companies are getting aggressive in their dealings with users who dare to use ad-blocking software to keep their privacy intact.

Hey, if they don’t like ad-blockers, then they should get the monster that they created back in the cage and throw away the key.  Better yet, slay their creation and come up with a less intrusive and privacy-invading way to make money.  

Any ad that drains the batteries on our devices is evil.  Any ad that uses up more bandwidth than necessary is evil.   Any ad that places a cookie on our computers without expressed permission from us is evil.  Any ad (or web site) that uses trackers is evil.  Any search engine that saves our searches to profile us  is evil (and very annoying and worrying).  Forcing ads on us should be an online crime.

I have medical training, and sometimes I have to look up the names of medications or conditions and what the common treatments are.  No, I am not RH-negative. No, I do not have an STI or Zika.  No, I do not have pancreatic cancer.  No, I do not have a blood disease either, nor do I have a penile or vaginal problem, or anything.  Nor do I have autism or autism-spectrum.  No, I do not have high-altitude sickness.  Yet I get carpet bombed with ads promoting sexual health, cancer treatment centers, condoms and other stuff that I have no interest in.

That’s why I started using ad-blockers and browsers that do not allow tracking.  And if they don’t want our interest or traffic, we’ll find the information elsewhere and spend our money elsewhere too, in excess of the money they’re making off their ads.

Instead of going after users who hate ads and trackers and who don’t want a footprint online, they should fix their own problem by themselves and leave us out of it.    Blaming US for THEIR problem is wrong.

Obama Will Turn Up in Surprise Visit to Tehran or Pyongyang Before The End of His Term: He Seems to Be Working Off a Bucket List

President Obama seems to be working off a bucket list, and it wouldn’t surprise me if one morning we wake up to the news that President Obama turned up in Iran or in North Korea.  I think it’s possible that it will happen prior to the new President being sworn in on January 20th.

The visit to Cuba was an insult to Cuban Americans whose families were driven out of their homeland by the Castro regime and hate the Castro brothers.

We can improve ties with Cuba while still telling the Castros where to go, but President Obama didn’t do it that way.  

Keeping the Castros in power isn’t a good idea.

Hulk Hogan Wins Huge Lawsuit Against Tabloid Website Gawker.com : First Amendment Doesn’t Apply in this Case

Some web sites have been commenting that First Amendment rights are threatened by Hulk Hogan’s victory against tabloid website Gawker.com, but I don’t think that’s right.  

Someone made a sex tape recording without Hogan’s knowledge or permission and Gawker posted parts of the recording on its web site, and then refused to take it down.    Hogan filed a $100 million lawsuit against Gawker and put Gawker’s sleazy editor on the stand to defend his decision to post the illegal video onto the web site. 

The jury agreed with Hogan, and awarded him $115 million for his troubles, with punitive damages pending next week. 

The punitive punishment should be interesting.   I’m thinking it’ll be in the $20 million range. Gawker doesn’t have the assets to comply with the ruling.  

I’ve been reading opinions online that the Hogan lawsuit threatens the First Amendment, but I disagree.   Posting illegal porn is not protected speech and should never be considered to be legal by the courts.  

Hopefully this gives people putting “revenge porn” online some second thoughts before they destroy someone’s life.  There will be a price to pay, and that’s a good thing.

Argentina Sinks Chinese Fishing Vessel: Like China, Argentina Has Established a 200 Mile Economic Exclusion Zone and This is the Result

A Chinese fishing vessel dared to fish inside Argentina’s 200 mile exclusion zone that they’ve established off their coastline, and the Argentinian Coast Guard opened fire and sent it to the bottom of the ocean.

China is demanding an investigation.  I hope they remember this when they start doing the same to ships that operate in their own disputed zone.  They haven’t done so yet, but they’re militarizing some of the reefs.  How long can it be?

The Law of the Sea Treaty establishes the 12 mile limit; China and Argentina are signatories. 

Anything past the 12 mile limit is and should remain international waters. 

I think our planet has enough trouble without adding the possibility of nations going to war over fishing boats and oil platforms.   Here’s a map that illustrates the problem.  With so many maritime borders overlapping already, tacking another 200 miles on compounds the problem.

China has claimed waters that are far beyond their territory.  From where the disputed islands are on the map, they’re definitely not Chinese.  Other nations have a much better claim on the islands and the surrounding waters.  A case was brought to the Hague, but China argued that it didn’t have jurisdiction. 

China’s entire argument is that it had a 2,000 year old claim to the islands.  If China was still ruled by an Emperor, that might hold more water, but China got rid of their last Emperor. 

Vietnam’s territorial claims are almost as vast as China’s, except their claims have been validated by the U.N.

The Philippines claims seem to be the closest to making sense.  The disputed islands are much closer to the Philippines than any other nation.

Here’s the timeline of the court case in the Hague between the Philippians and China.  The court is still deciding if it has jurisdiction to settle this mess, which I hope that it does. 

Kasich’s New Liberal Immigration Amnesty Stance Sucks: He Needs to Get Out of the Race Too

I don’t like the direction that John Kasich has gone in since I voted in the Michigan primary last week.

I voted for Cruz as it looked like Kasich’s stand was shifting even then, but I wasn’t sure.

What he was saying last week made a lot of sense.  Here’s his prior immigration stance as of last week, according to the ontheissues.org web site:

• It's a silly argument to ship 11M illegals back to Mexico. (Nov 2015)
• Focus of immigration should be to keep families together. (Sep 2015)
• Latino immigrants will continue to play critical role in US. (Sep 2015)
• Focus on border & guest workers, not birthright citizenship. (Sep 2015)
• 1993: end birthright citizenship; 2015: not part of approach. (Aug 2015)
• Seal the border with Mexico, support legal immigrants. (Jul 2015)
• Open to pathway to citizenship, but doesn't like it. (Feb 2015)
• Post-Sept-11 open-door melting-pot is essentially intact. (May 2006)
• Limit the number of legal immigrants, and their benefits. (Nov 1996)
• Voted YES on more immigrant visas for skilled workers. (Sep 1998)
• Declared English the official language of the US. (Jan 1999)

But now, he’s making all kinds of noise about immigration and amnesty.  I don’t know if he’s pulling out all the stops to win in Ohio today, but I can’t agree with him on his new liberal policies on immigration.

I don’t have an argument with him from a religious point of view, but I don’t like the bait and switch that he’s pulled on voters who supported him previously.

I wonder how many of his prior supporters will support him now that he’s gone liberal on this issue.   He may have handed Trump a victory in Ohio.

Rubio Needs to Get Out Now: If He Loses in Florida, It Could Be the End of His Political Career

I think Marco Rubio needs to get out of the race prior to Tuesday’s primary in Florida.

If he wants to stay in politics, he can’t lose Florida if he chooses to stay in.  Things typically don’t go well for primary candidates who lose their home states, especially if they aren’t the front-runner.

Hope he’s weighing his options.

Violence at Trump Events is Not Unexpected: Trump Has Actively Been Encouraging It With His Abrasive Language, Confrontational Rhetoric and Unwillingness to Adapt His Strategy

There has been a spike in violence at Donald Trump’s campaign events, and it’s not unanticipated at all.  A blind man could have seen it coming.

What I am surprised at is that it hasn’t happened much much sooner than now, and that no one has tried to shoot their way into one of his campaign events.   Even now, attendees at some of his events are saying they may have to kill his opponents if they don’t stop protesting.

Ridiculous!

Does Kristallnacht ring a bell?  I think parts of the country are on the verge of one, with Trump at the wheel. 

Historically, when a political leader calls for violence to deal with groups of people, violence ensues.  We saw it in Rwanda, we saw it in Iraq, and in Libya, during the breakup of Yugoslavia, and we’re seeing it in Syria on a daily basis.

Trump needs to cool it, before American people start to die.

Trump Can Probably Win Without the Support of White Supremacists: Why Is He Waffling on Denouncing the Ku Klux Klan?

As a self-declared enemy of the KKK, I don’t understand why Donald Trump seems to be half-heartedly denouncing David Duke and his KKK associates.

Trump may have made a big mistake.  

Any candidate who doesn’t come out against the Klan and other white power groups should quit the race.   And not admitting to a mistake isn’t working to Trump’s advantage.

Trump reminds me of the Hutu idiot who took to the radio in Rwanda in 1994,  and told his supporters to start “exterminating the cockroaches”, referring to the Tutsi minority in Rwanda.   One hundred days later, 800,000+ people were dead.

Trump is very careless with the kind of language that he uses.  Dropping race bombs and not standing up to people doing the devil’s work will divide this country even more than it already is.  It may even incite a race war, which is EXACTLY what racial troublemakers want.

Trump needs to change course and fast.  If he becomes the President, he needs to reverse the damage that our current President has already incurred on the nation’s already-fragile race relations.  Enough of the race bombs and half-measures. 

He has to tell David Duke off and make a lot of noise doing so, before the voters punish him either during the remaining primaries, or during the general election in November.

GOP Members of Senate Judiciary Committee Are Making a Major Blunder: They’ve Decided Not to Hold Confirmation Hearings for Potential Supreme Court Nominees in 2016

The Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have decided to not hold confirmation hearings for any Supreme Court nominees in 2016, preferring a potential Clinton or Sanders Administration to nominate the next Supreme Court nominee in 2017.

They’ve lost their minds up there.

They’re going to look really stupid if they are forced to backtrack if President Obama nominates a conservative in response to their bone-headed move.  And in an election year, that could be a very costly mistake.  He might actually take this step out of pure spite.

Doing nothing is the kind of politics that people—mostly on the GOP side--are already up in arms about. 

Apple Needs to Stand It’s Ground Against FBI, and Not to Protect Civil Liberties: This is About the Government Not Doing It’s Job and Being Unable to Protect Sensitive Online Data

I’ve been going back and forth on the FBI vs. Apple situation and have finally come to a few conclusions.

First, the government cannot keep stuff safe online, and this involves coding or programming to defeat Apple’s latest security measures.  If hackers could, they’d steal our nuclear missile codes and try to sell them back to the government for bitcoins.

Anything that Apple gives to the FBI to unlock a terrorist’s iPhone is vulnerable to theft by nefarious individuals who would exploit the back door.   Destroy the code after it’s been used?  Wishful thinking.  What is deleted can be restored, if you have the right tools or training.   One-use coding?  Nope…hackers can get around that little problem too.

Next, why is the government bringing Apple in to fix their mistake?  The accused San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone belonged to the county health department where he worked, and they could have installed software that would have given them complete access to the phone’s data.  They paid for the software but never installed it.   If a government owns the phone that an employee is using, they should be able to access the data at any time, especially if the employee leaves the government, dies, or is accused of a crime.  This is a huge screw-up.

Finally, I’m of the opinion that any politician who supports the government position deserves to have their data hacked and then released for public consumption.  They’ll be singing a different tune after they’re publicly shamed. 

Also, they can set the example for the rest of us, and not encrypt their phones or tablets or other electronic devices.  

I bet that even before Apple incorporated their security measures into their latest operating systems that Donald Trump had put an unlock code into his iPhone and other devices.  And yet he called for a boycott of Apple products until they help the FBI with defeating their iPhone security.  Any politician saying stuff like this doesn’t deserve a vote.

This is less about civil liberties, and more about government data being potentially stolen and used by hackers to open millions of locked phones.  That’s what this is really about. 

Apple doesn’t need to invoke the civil liberties argument; they’ve got plenty of facts about the federal government having stuff stolen by hackers and being unable to protect Apple’s source coding.

Here’s a partial list of computer breaches in the U.S. Government:

September 2009 through December 2011—U.S. Department of Health and Human Services breached 13 times.  Employee records of 300 employees believed to have been compromised.

March 2012—Environmental Protection Agency hacked, personal and financial data for 8,000 users stolen, including bank account numbers and Social Security numbers.

May 2012—Department of Justice had 1.7 gigabytes of data stolen by Anonymous, posted publicly.  Database contained sensitive information about crimes, criminals and crime victims.

June 2012—Multiple U.S. Navy servers breached, over 200,000 people affected.  Sensitive personal data stolen.

June 2012—Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) server breached, email accessed, attachments stolen along with Social Security numbers of 700 employees.

June 2012—U.S. Department of Energy breached by an employee, attempted to sell access to supercomputer to an undercover FBI agent.

June 2012—Department of Homeland Security breached, personal data stolen included access information to DHS servers.

October 2012—U.S. Army Chief of Public Affairs mistakenly posted sensitive information to a public database.  500 Army soldiers and employees had their personal data, Social Security numbers and other sensitive data posted.

October 2014—Denial of Service (DoS) attack from inside the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)’s own network. 

November 2014—White House network is breached, President Obama’s schedule was accessed.

November 2014—NOAA network was compromised by Chinese hackers.  Information of what was accessed has not been provided as of yet.

November 2014—USPS network was breached; personal information including names, addresses, phone numbers, emergency contacts, birthdates and Social Security numbers were stolen.  800,000 employees affected.

November 2014—State Department network breached; the Russian hackers got into State Department non-classified email systems.  Information gleaned helped hackers to go after and access the White House servers.

April 2015—FAA hacked; experts publicly worried that the nation’s air traffic control systems were vulnerable.

April 2015—Department of Defense breached.  Non-classified files were accessed.

May 2015—St. Louis Federal Reserve breached.  Internet traffic was redirected elsewhere.

May 2015—IRS breached.  334,000 taxpayers had their information stolen.  IRS reported that their main system was not affected.

June 2015—U.S. Army web site breached by Syrian Electronic Army.  Defacing of web site resulted. 

June 2015—Office of Personnel Management (OPM)—Government worker data stolen.  25,000 workers affected initially; after lengthy investigation it was discovered that the number was actually 22.1 million people affected.  Names, addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, Social Security numbers, and other sensitive information was stolen.

July 2015—Census Bureau—User accounts, audit information stolen and posted by Anonymous. 

August 2015—Pentagon—Email systems for 4,000 employees compromised by Russian hackers.

=============

Should Apple be concerned about trusting the government with coding to break the security of their operating system, given the (partial) list of failures above?

Um, in a word….YES!!!

Trump Calls Cruz “Unstable”: Trump Must Be Joking as He’s Obviously Talking About Himself

“Unstable” is not a term that is applicable to Ted Cruz.  That term fits Donald Trump perfectly, so it’s highly hypocritical that he’s calling someone else unstable.

Which candidate can’t get along with people who disagree with him?  Which candidate has to resort to name-calling and insults to distract the opposition from debating real issues?  Which one can’t let a feud go and move on?  Which one never apologizes because he’s “never” wrong?  Which one has gone on highly-public profanity-laced tirades when things aren’t going his way?  Which one is highly bombastic and a prima donna?

TRUMP’s instability makes him unfit to be President, so he should stop criticizing others from his highly-jaded point of view and address his own personal problems before attempting to transfer them to others. 

I still find it amazing that he’s able to label others with his own personal negative attributes so successfully.  The media eats that stuff up as the GOP candidates are being severely damaged by Trump’s antics and are responding in kind, so that the media’s preferred Democratic candidates have more source material to deploy against their eventual GOP rival.

Getting Another Feeling About Tuesday: Trump Will Finish in Second Place (or lower) Thanks to His Sloppy Handling of the New Hampshire Debate

Trump’s true colors shown through at the New Hampshire debate, and he was getting booed by rank and file Republicans.  They didn’t seem too impressed with his entertainment act.  That debate was almost painful to watch…almost.

Prediction time: I have no idea who will win the state for the GOP side, but I’m getting the feeling that it won’t be Trump.  I think he’s going to finish in second place (or lower).   First place could be Rubio, or Cruz.

On the Democratic side, I think Sanders will take New Hampshire.  Democratic voters there seem to be in sync with his message, and Clinton still has major trust issues.

It may be that she will be charged with a crime.  Her email problems seem to be getting worse by the day.

It’ll be very interesting to see if the national and New Hampshire polls have it right, or if Trump’s voters stay home in New Hampshire, like his followers in Iowa did. 

The polls in Iowa showed Trump leading Cruz anywhere from 3-9% just before the caucuses started.   New Hampshire polls are showing Trump leading by double-digits.   If Trump loses, he’s going to be crying foul even more than he did over Iowa.   I don’t think it’s going to be as easy a win as Trump thinks.

Should be interesting.

Coin Tosses in the Iowa Caucuses? And Hillary Clinton Won 6 Out of 6 of Them?

According to this report, the chances of Hillary going 6/6 on coin tosses in the Iowa caucus was 1.6%.  Yet it happened, and gave Hillary the razor-thin victory in Iowa.

I’m not a fan of either Democratic candidate, but something’s really wrong here.  Sanders could very easily turn this mess into a court case, and I can’t say I’d blame him.   The Democratic math is pretty fuzzy.

The chaos shown in YouTube videos is confirmation of things going really bad.  You have to watch the entire video, especially when they start to compare numbers at the 1:11 mark of the video.

They’ve got to get their act together…hopefully this fiasco isn’t repeated in any of the other states who don’t do this kind of caucus.  I can see why Rush has referred to this process as the “Hawkeye Cockeye.”  What a mess.

Predictions for Iowa Caucus on Monday: Sanders Will Win Democratic Caucus, Trump Will Finish Second or Third

I have a feeling about Monday’s Iowa caucus.

I think the email issue will cripple Hillary Clinton on Monday, and Bernie Sanders will win on the Democratic side.  On the GOP side, I don’t think that Trump is going to do as well as the polls are suggesting.

Cruz will probably win, with Trump in second or third place.  Rubio may surge too.

Trump’s supporters have to turn out in force, and I’m not sure they’re going to.  Younger voters traditionaly don’t turn out to caucus.  That’s Trump’s Achilles Heel…his supporters MUST turn out in order for him to win.

I still don’t like the Iowa caucuses, but with the bombastic Trump in the mix, it will be a very interesting evening.

Flint Water Situation is Outrageous: Screw-Up After Screw-Up, and Now The State is Responsible for Lead Contamination of Thousands of People in Flint

After watching the news coverage from when the story of the water problems in Flint emerged, and Governor Snyder’s State of the State address, I’m in shock that something like this could happen on so huge a scale.

The federal and state investigations should reveal who knew what, and when. 

I’m not joining the call for Snyder to resign at this time.  But it is disgraceful that a water quality problem of this magnitude is taking place in this state, which has many quadrillions of safe water to draw drinking water from.

People in these “protection agencies” need to DO THEIR JOBS so that something like this can be stopped from happening again.  If someone had done the proper tests prior to Flint switching its water source, and started screaming “STOP!!” this could have been prevented.

Now there’s one heck of a mess to take care of, and one that will go on for years and cost billions (which Michigan doesn’t have), and to take care of any kids that develop permanent brain damage from lead contamination.   This is not a political issue to be bandied around.  Politicizing this situation won’t make it better, either.

Texas Governor Proposes Constititional Convention: This is a Very Bad Idea

I’m opposed to convening a Constitutional Convention for any reason whatsoever.

The governor of Texas has proposed it to add Constitutional Amendments in the following areas:

• Prohibit Congress from regulating activity that occurs in one state
• Require Congress to balance its budget.
• Prohibit administrative agencies from creating law
• Prohibit administrative agencies from pre-empting state law
• Allow a two-thirds majority of the states to override a Supreme Court decision
• Require a seven-justice super-majority vote for Supreme Court decisions that invalidate a democratically enacted law
• Restore balance of power between the federal and state governments by limiting the former to the powers expressly delegated to it in the Constitution
• Give state officials the power to sue in federal court when federal officials overstep their bounds
• Allow a two-thirds majority of the states to override a federal law regulation.

I like all of these ideas, but not when a Constitutional Convention is required to pass them. 

What’s to stop a runaway convention from enacting other changes that one interest group or another want?   Given the difficulty in convening a Constitutional Convention, these groups will realize it’s their one chance to change the law, they’ll come out of the woodwork with their own proposals that are best left in constitutional debate classes and not put into practice.

I prefer to have the Congress propose an amendment, debate it, pass it and then submit it to the states for ratification.  3/4 of the states need to ratify it.

This is a MUCH safer (though much slower) way to push through a Constitutional Amendment.   A convention could conceivably make an irreversible mess out of our Constitution.   That’s not worth the risk.

Militia Seizes Federal Wildlife Refuge Building: This Situation Goes Back to the 2014 Stand-Off Between the Bundy Family and the Federal Government Over Their Rustling of Bundy’s Cows

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I wrote about the Bundy situation in 2014 as it was unfolding then.  Here are the links:

Obama Administration is Provoking a Domestic Uprising With Their Stupid Cattle Round-Up: They Need to Stop Sending Police, K-9 Units and SWAT Teams to Handle Arguments With Farmers and Ranchers

Harry Reid Needs to Retire: He’s Acting Like Nevada’s Emperor over the Bundy Ranch Situation Instead of Acting Like the Senate Majority Leader and Dealing With More Pressing National Issues…Get With the Program, Reid, or Get Out of the Way!

Bundy’s Race Comments Are Major Screw-Up: Whatever Goodwill He Had Built Up Went Out the Window and He Won’t Get It Back

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A blind man could have seen this one coming.  And now Cliven Bundy’s family has jumped in with both feet and are part of the armed group that is holding a federal building in support of another landowner in Oregon who has a conflict going with the federal government.    

I am of the opinion that the miitias should go home.

All they’re going to do is push the government into taking further unconstitutional measures to eventually end gun ownership in the United States.   This is exactly what the current Administration wants, despite Obama’s denials and his ridiculing the NRA and others who are daring to speak out against President Obama’s presidential fiats.

The militia group, calling itself the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, has vowed to stay put until its demands are met.   No police have shown up, and many pundits are predicting that the police and FBI will not move in unless lives are threatened. 

This is probably a good idea by the police.   A pitched battle with militia members who are just as heavily armed as a SWAT team is the very last thing that is needed.

Bundy and his group won in Nevada due to the federal government backing down, which is probably what lead to their invading Oregon in support of another landowner with his own legitimate arguments against federal government actions.  

On a side note, there were peaceful protests in nearby Burns, Oregon, to support the Hammond family.  Many of the locals turned out in support.  That’s how this entire thing should have gone down.  The Hammonds have also made it clear that they didn’t ask for the Bundys or the militias for help.  They turned themselves in after being resentenced for an arson charge (a controlled burn on their own land that spread into nearby federal land). 

This is a miscalculation by the militias, and one that will do more harm than good.   Even occupying the facility while unarmed would have been better than what they’re doing.

And what of Native claims, which predate the ranchers’ claims by thousands of years?  Bundy isn’t talking about that.  No, they’re opening a can of worms that may lead to an outcome that they won’t like.

Just…go home, militia.  Nothing good can come of this.

GOP Promises to Repeal Obamacare in 2016: Another Empty Promise in an Election Year That They Have No Hope (Or Apparent Intention) of Fulfilling

The GOP is promising that the first bill they will send to President Obama’s desk for his veto is the repeal of the (not) Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). 

They could have already done that in the multi-trillion dollar budget that they passed last month.  Instead, they left Obamacare completely intact, and left Planned Parenthood intact as well, in a bill that really mattered.

By their actions so far, the GOP seems to be sending the message that they’d rather keep their Boogeymen (Obamacare and Planned Parenthood) around so that they have wedge issues that they can readily go after for political points. 

They don’t have a prayer of succeeding in either goal unless they increase their control of both houses (very unlikely due to the do-nothing Congress and GOP) and pull off a miracle in November and put someone in the White House.

The sooner the GOP puts up and shuts up, the sooner people like me will start to believe what they’re saying and promising.   I have no faith in the current Congress to get anything done this year, while I have every expectation for President Obama to do exactly what he says he’s going to do, and rule by presidential proclamation, regardless of whether it’s constitutional or not.

Prove me wrong, GOP.   Get something done.

Steve Harvey is Taking Too Much Blame for Miss Universe Disaster: Who Designed the Card That Set Harvey Up to Fail? He or She Should Be Taking Just As Much Blame

I don’t watch beauty pageants, and think they’re a waste of time unless Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell get into another feud over it.  But in this case, I’m making an exception because I like Steve Harvey.   He announced the wrong contestent had won and then had to painfully announce that another contestant had actually won.

Take a look at the card that they gave Harvey to read off of:

Now there’s a report out that the teleprompter that Harvey was reading off of was wrong as well.

Get off of Steve Harvey’s case, people.  The card above is clear as mud, and the teleprompter is never wrong…right President Obama?

Harvey’s mistake was the last in a string of mistakes made by others who need to share in the criticism.   Hope Trump and Rosie weigh in on this.   If they do, and Steve Harvey fires up his usual comic routine, it’ll provide all of us some much needed comic relief.

Here’s a Thought: What if Trump Won the GOP Nomination But Then Announced That He Was Running the Rest of the Race as an Independent?

That’s hard to imagine, but what if Donald Trump did take that step?

What legal options would the GOP have?   Is the nominee contractually bound to the party after accepting their nomination?   Would he have to decline the nomination?  I doubt the parties have a contingency plan for dealing with a nightmare scenario like that.  And it would be just like a vindictive Trump to force that kind of an issue.

I can’t see Trump leaving the GOP in a position to reorganize around a new candidate and challenge him if he were to start an independent run.

Trump’s in a position to destroy any chance of a GOP victory for the White House next year and decimate the national level organization.

Interesting thought.

On a side note, I’m not impressed with Lindsay Graham’s power of persuasion.   He’s being lead around by Trump too.

Trump is a Genius: Not Because of His Plan to Ban Muslims from Entering the Country, But Because He’s Forcing the ENTIRE Field to React to His Splash Statements

Donald Trump is a genius.  He’s leading the entire field around by the nose and kicking them in the butt at the same time.     No wonder his poll numbers have jumped.

He’s making fools out of the GOP.   Every politician who is reacting to his splash statements have fallen into a trap. 

His competitors have to stop allowing him to dictate what the next discussion will be.  If they want to win, they MUST get out in front of Trump and make their own waves.  Impress us.

U.S. Air Force Running Low on Munitions: Administration and Congress Needs to Pay Attention to Air Force Funding Requests

The Air Force announced that their stockpiles of missiles and bombs is getting a tad low, and that it might take up to four years to replenish the stockpiles to prewar levels.

They’ve dropped 20,000 bombs and missiles on ISIS, according to reports.

The Administration and Congress need to act to supply the Air Force with the kinds of munitions that they’re expending against ISIS, especially if it’s going to take a number of years to produce the needed weapons.

Is This What Trump Was Referencing When He Said That American Muslims Were Celebrating 9/11?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5BtQgTGOI4

Very interesting story, especially since it’s a CNN story. 

Finally, Someone With Guts to Stand Up to Russian Aggression: While the Loss of Life is Regrettable, the Russians Have Been Inflicting Casualties on People Fighting ISIS

Turkey shot down a Russian Air Force aircraft, and put Russia on notice that it won’t tolerate Russia’s blatant disregard for the airspace of other nations.

While I doubt that Russia will attack Turkey militarily, I can see diplomatic and economic reprisals in the near future. 

The last thing that Russia needs is a shooting war with NATO.

With Possible ISIS Bomb Bringing Down Russian Airliner Over Sinai Peninsula, Perhaps Russians Will Get With the Program and Start Focusing on ISIS Exclusively Instead of Assad’s U.S.-Backed Enemies

One of the features of Russia’s air campaign in Syria has been that Russian jets have been rarely hitting ISIS targets , while focusing most of their targeting on President Assad’s U.S.-backed opposition.   Note the map below:

Even though this map has not been updated since October 5th, the Russian targeting hasn’t changed a whole lot.  Reports of Russian air strikes on rebel controlled territory have been coming in daily.

But with a possible bomb onboard a Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula, and with ISIS claiming credit for taking down the flight with over two hundred Russian citizens on board, perhaps the Russians will go after ISIS more, which is what they should have been doing from the very beginning. 

Assad’s fate can be decided later. 

ISIS is the bigger threat; that’s the narrative that the American and Russian governments need to agree on.   

Carson is Partially Right, Though What He Probably Meant to Say Was that Sharia Law is Incompatible With the U.S. Constitution

Dr. Ben Carson created a furor when he said that Islam was not compatible with the U.S. Constitution.  I believe what he meant was that Sharia law is incompatible with Constitutional law.

All you have to do is look at the Preamble to the Constitution and then look at the plight of women already living under Sharia law, especially the type embraced by ISIS, the Taliban, Saudi Arabia (with their morality police), and other Islamic countries whose women are treated horribly.

And it doesn’t matter which flavor of Sharia law we’re talking about, whether it’s Shiite or Sunni.  It’s equally awful to women.

Liberty for all people is not possible under Sharia.  That makes it totally incompatible with life under the United States Constitution, which is common sense.  Wish Carson hadn’t stumbled over this issue.   

While the Constitution does not permit the specific banning of Sharia law, it does invalidate any laws that come into conflict with the Constitution, which is the Supreme Law of the land.  That includes 12th century barbarism that our enemies want to impose on us.

I hope the courts remember that.

Some European Countries Now Under A Refugee Tsunami Once Criticized U.S. Moves on Illegal Immigration: Now They’re Doing What They Once Criticized to Deal With Their Own Problems

The wheel turns, does it not?

I’ve been watching the unfolding European drama on illegal immigration with great interest, and can’t help but think about those European nations that once harshly criticized U.S. moves to prevent what’s now enveloped Europe. 

U.S. immigration policies of the past have been dubbed “racist” and “fascist” by European governments, and over at the U.N.,  in particular the 2010 Arizona anti-alien laws which placed tough restrictions on illegal immigrants entering Arizona and finding work there.

Now some of these same European countries are following similar tracks to control the tidal wave of illegal immigration to their nations, and it’s making American liberals very uncomfortable.   European nations are rushing troops and police to their borders and shutting down their transportation systems to prevent movement of people.

That being said, there’s no easy answer to today’s problems and Europe is getting hit with a heavy dose of reality.   It may tear the EU apart far faster than anything else.

The West needs to do a far better job with their collaborative foreign policies, so that there’s less of an incentive for people to leave their home countries.  Why leave when one can earn a living and live in relative safety with family and friends in familiar surroundings?  That should be the Western goal, if they don’t want to absorb millions of new people.

Come Now, CNN: “Anchor Babies” is a Racist Term According to Liberals and Their Pro-Immigration Supporters, So Why Are You Allowing One of Your Web Site Commentators to Use the Term to Describe Conservatives?

Nice going, CNN.

One of their commentators dared to use the “anchor baby” label to describe conservatives in a new op-ed piece, which flies in the face of the official liberal party line against using the term in the ongoing immigration debate.

Is it a racist term, or is it not, CNN?  And if it is, someone owes everybody an apology.  If it’s not, they should still apologize for offending the feel-good crowd whose feelings are undoubtedly hurt by those words even appearing on a liberal news outlet’s web site.

Perhaps they should hold a funeral for this term too.  After all, it worked so well when they held a funeral for the “n” word in Detroit and elsewhere and symbolically buried the (real) racist term. 

So much for CNN’s pretense of impartiality.  Again.

Aren’t there more pressing stories to cover, instead of a news outlet making itself part of the news?

GOP and Democratic Presidential Nomination Fields are Weak Due to Top Draws Being Sideshow Distractions: Trump Makes Waves, and Hillary is Getting Smacked Around by Waves of Trouble

Donald Trump keeps drowning the other GOP candidates out, and Hillary Clinton is drowning in her own troubles.  

And if Trump is talking about throwing away $1 billion on his campaign, he isn’t going away anytime soon.   As an entertainer, Trump has no equal.  But his political skills are unproven, and his ability to deliver on promises that he’s making are questionable at best, except in one area: the economy.  I think he’s got the best chance out of all the candidates to turn things around in that area.

Hillary Clinton’s legal problems are continuing to mount, and her scheduled appearance before Congress next month to answer “all” questions seems to be a last-ditched effort to save her political career from smashing onto the rocks.  She seems to be putting herself in additional legal peril with this move.  

If Hillary is charged with a crime, Biden’s almost certain to jump in.  He has a certain credibility that Hillary does not have in the honesty department.   Gore is a one-issue candidate if he were to jump in.   He won’t get elected on a global warming platform. 

Sanders is a joke.  The first and only thing that he’s said that I totally agree with is this: he owes BlackLivesMatter no apology whatsoever.   They stormed his rally and should be apologizing to Sanders, not the other way around.    I totally disagree with Sanders on all of his other stands.  

The other GOP candidates need to be bold, and be themselves, not repackaged Democrats.  EVERY time a Republican tries to out-Democrat a Democrat, he or she gets pounded on Election Day.   They’re allowing Trump to control the direction of the conversation, and reacting to Trump instead of getting out in front with their own ideas.  Get on it!

What Happens to Hillary Clinton’s Campaign if She’s Charged With a Crime? Will She Get Out?

Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the White House will likely end if she is charged with a crime. 

She should probably get out now, so that she can begin to prepare her legal defense against the criminal investigation that is now being conducted by the FBI.   And it is a criminal investigation.

Hillary should have realized that what she was doing with her email was illegal and a major security problem.     Given that, I wonder who she will throw under the bus to save herself. 

That’s what the Clintons do best.

Japanese Emperor Should Issue Final and Complete Apology for Japan’s Role in World War II, Then There Should Be No Expectation of Further Apologies: Today’s Japanese Political Leaders Weren’t Even Alive During World War II, So It’s Unfair to Insist That Generation After Generation of Japanese Leaders Who Had Nothing to Do With World War II to Keep Apologizing

Japanese Emperor Akihito delivered a glancing blow of an apology to nations that Japan invaded during World War II, which set off a new round of resentment in South Korea and in China. 

Under the Japanese constitution, the Emperor cannot make or issue political statements without the permission of the Japanese government, so he went out on a limb to say what he did about World War II.

Prime Minister Abe is openly resentful of apologizing, which has generated a ton of resentment in China and in South Korea.

It’s really past time for Japan, South Korea and China to let World War II finally end, and I think the Emperor will have to get really involved.  He needs to issue a complete and final apology on behalf of the entire Japanese nation for Japan’s role in World War II, including the rape of Nanking and the use of “comfort women” for Japanese soldiers. 

Then there should be no expectations of further apologies from Japan’s political leaders.

It’s unfair for China and South Korea to continue to want apologies from Japan’s political leadership as most of Japan’s current politicians were born after World War II.  Prime Minister Abe was born in 1954.   

Every time a Japanese prime minister is forced to issue another World War II apology, it causes huge political problems for him from his domestic audience.  Communist China may want that, but it isn’t good for one nation to exert that kind of influence over another.

Japan’s leadership really needs to get it together and allow the Emperor to issue a final statement.   It’s time to let World War II get out of the realm of current events and allow it to take it’s place in the history books.

Shouldn’t the Focus Be on the Funerals for the Victims of the Charleston Shootings, and Not on a 150 Year Old Debate That Shows No Sign of Easing?

I think there’s a couple of misplaced issues in the Charleston massacre, that can wait for a while.

Instead of focusing energy on the victims, their families and making the church that was attacked whole again, a great deal of political capital and energy has been shifted to going after the Confederate flag, which continues to fly on state capitol grounds in the South, or is on license plates.

The Confederate battle flag debate has been ongoing for 150 years and shows no signs of going away anytime soon.  In fact, retailers can’t keep the rebel battle flags in stock; they’re flying off the shelves since the controversy re-erupted in the wake of the Charleston church massacre.

That was expected.  When a movement gains steam, it often spikes sales of whatever item is in the political crosshairs.

The flag debate can be put on hold until after the victims’ funerals are held.   The second item is the gun debate that lib Dems keep rehashing.   That can wait too.

Political activism should not supplant honoring the victims, and comforting their families.

Kid Who Shot Up Charleston Church Cannot Claim Insanity: His “Last Rhodesian” Manifesto Makes Clear Who He Doesn’t Like, and Who He Was Going to Go After in Charleston

The person who shot up the Charleston church on Thursday night and killed nine people will not be able to claim insanity, in my opinion.

The reason I say that is because of his website and manifesto.   It lays out his hatred of people who are non-white and broadcasts his intentions to attack a target in Charleston and hurt people.

His photos are particularly troubling, with various references to neo-Nazi propaganda.   His web site is going to be of particular interest to the prosecution, with regards to his rumored intention to plead insanity.   It might have had some traction if the web site and manifesto didn’t exist, but the manifesto was too well-researched and organized (I disagree with the entire thing, by the way), even though it was bizarre rant.

The photos establish his hatreds over a long time period, with various neo-Nazi references (the 1488 thing, which I had to look up), stomping on, spitting on and burning the American flag, and similar photos involving apartheid-era Rhodesian and South African flags.  

It will be hard for him to claim temporary insanity with the web site and manifesto anchor wrapped around his neck.  

He’s competent enough to stand trial and pay for what he’s done.

Senator Tells Pope to Stay Out of Climate Change Debate: “Do Your Job and We’ll Do Ours!” OK, Except Congress Shouldn’t Be Involved in the Climate Change Debate Either!

This is a good one. 

The Senate chair of a climate change committee is tired of Pope Francis speaking out about climate change, telling the Pope to “do your job and we’ll do ours.”   I happen to agree that the Pope shouldn’t be involved in this mess of a debate, but the Senator overlooked something very critical:

Congress shouldn’t be involved in the debate either.  No politician has any business in an ongoing and unsettled scientific debate.   They’ve already screwed this situation up almost beyond belief, and on an international scale.

This is a scientific debate that hasn’t reached a final conclusion about what’s really going on with the climate.  The scientific community involved in the climate change debate is a train wreck, and keeps coming up with contradictory theories to explain things.  And the politicians love to turn these things into talking points.  

The disaster of carbon credit markets is one example of politicians to make more money off something that they have absolutely no control over and barely understand.  Political snake oil….

The scientific community is too polarized by this issue to give our leaders sound advice on what the facts are.   Settled science?  I think not.

Honesty from the scientific community will do more to further our understanding of the world around us far more than politicians taking a stand.   The politics can wait until the science is actually settled.

Recent Government Paper Manipulates Climate Change Data so Blatantly that Even Climate Change Scientists Are Balking: Sad State of Affairs in Global Warming Alarmism Movement

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently released a report that manipulated climate change data AGAIN which changes the data to show nothing but rises in global temperature over the last seventeen years and not any kind of pause or cool down.

This kind of blatant data manipulation is EXACTLY the reason that people like me doubt the official (and government approved) narrative about global warming.   The NOAA report is a political document meant to silence political opponents of global warming.   This is also what happens when politicians enter a scientific debate.   

But climate scientists themselves are publicly challenging the NOAA report, saying that the manipulated data does nothing to further understanding of what’s actually happening,    The NOAA-branded report is just adding fuel to a fire that the government wants to go away.   But they keep engaging in science fiction instead of science fact.   And they’re being called on it by people on their own side of the equation.

Pretty sad state of affairs for the global warming alarmism side when they criticize a report meant to silence their opposition.

It will be interesting to see if the people criticizing the government report change their tune in coming weeks, or if they stick to their guns.

No Progress on Straightening Out Primary Calendar: All States Should Set Their Primaries Earlier as a Show of Support for Challenging the Unbalanced Primary System

During the last primary season, Michigan was one of several states that the DNC and RNC singled out for punishment for daring to draw attention to the unfairness of two states getting the lion’s share of attention from the candidates due to their first-in-the-nation primary elections, and the respective (not so respective) National Committees of both parties going along with the system.

Michigan’s electoral votes were cut in half as a result by both parties.   Thanks for nothing, DNC and RNC.   I selected a side and wrote in Mickey Mouse.   That’s what I thought of my half-strength vote.

New Hampshire and Iowa have different issues on their plates than Michigan has.  Here’s a sample of issues in the headlines in those three states:

Iowa has been focused on ethanol, gasoline taxes, drone surveillance, “telemed” abortions, state aid for broadband access and same-sex marriage. 

New Hampshire has been focused on marijuana legalization, sexual orientation discrimination, the death penalty, immigration,  Common Core and Indian gaming. 

Michigan is focused in on its economy, deer hunting, bird flu, Common Core, fracking, repealing the state’s prevailing wage law, wolf hunting, recreational marijuana legalization, insurance premiums, funding for schools and roads, and guns.

Are Michigan’s issues any less important than New Hampshire’s or Iowa’s?  I think not.

During the last primary season, Michigan bumped up its primary election in violation of the rules so that our issues could be heard in all the racket emanating from Iowa and New Hampshire.

I hope more states cross the red line and schedule their primary elections early next year, and really stick it to both the DNC and RNC.   And if they do to those states what they did to Michigan, I hope all kinds of people write in Mickey Mouse or vote for “none of the above.”    

Much more to follow on this issue in the coming weeks and months.

GOP Field is Unimpressive: Mickey Mouse May Get My Vote (Again) for Next Year’s Primary

The last few primary elections, if I’ve been annoyed with the choice of contenders that the main parties have put forth, I’ve picked a side and then voted for Mickey Mouse. 

He may get my primary vote again, if things stand as they are.  I’m not impressed so far with the current field of candidates.

Someone had better start knocking ‘em out of the park, real quick.

Texas Police Officer Who Stopped Two Terrorists During Attack on Mohammed Cartoon Gathering is Still Unknown: He Probably Wants to Protect His Family From Retaliation

A heroic police officer who shot two terrorists after they opened fire with AK-47s on police and security officers at a controversial Mohammed cartoon gathering is still not publicly known, and that’s not a bad thing.  The police officer probably wants to protect his family, so the media should respect that.   I’m content with not knowing his name.

The terrorists drove up, got out of their car and opened fire, wounding an unarmed security guard.  It’s being said that the police officer drew his sidearm, killed one of the attackers immediately and wounded the other, which ended the situation. 

I don’t know if his name can be suppressed as the shooting is a matter of public record so his name’s probably going to be released.   Hope they’re taking steps to protect the officer’s loved ones before that happens.

80+ Percent of Vote Goes Against Michigan Proposal 1: Lopsided Defeat Shows Lansing Politicians Need to Do Their Jobs, Quit Scheduling Unnecessary Elections, and Fix the Roads With Money They Already Collect

Michigan’s had a problem with crumbling roads for quite a while now, and the politicians in Lansing have failed to come up with a solution to fix them.

Then someone came up with a cockamamie plot to alter the Michigan constitution to allow for an increase in the state sales tax, plus a bunch of other not-mentioned tax and fee increases that the legislature have already enacted.  Everything was to go into effect when Proposal 1 was approved by Michigan voters.  Fortunately, 80% of the vote went in the opposite direction.

I voted no because of all the other increases that were not mentioned in the proposal.  I did not consent to any of the not-mentioned tax and fee proposals.

I also object to a 200 word proposal that barely scratches the 46,000 word bill that includes language to automatically raise gas taxes.   Hard to believe a Republican governor would go along with something like that.  

They lost by a wide margin on this issue because the proposal left out key details of how much taxes and fees were going to increase.   They can fix the roads, increase education spending and provide other services with the money they already have.

They should stay in session (working FIVE DAY work weeks like everybody else, and not THREE DAY work weeks) until the road problem is fixed.

U.S. Supreme Court May Decide to Send the Gay Marriage Question Back to the States: Constitution is Clear on Who Regulates Marriage

I think there’s a possibility that the Supreme Court will not issue a ruling on the gay marriage question, and that they’ll defer to the states to make up their own minds.  This is probably the correct course of action, since the Constitution says that the authority to regulate marriage rests with the states.

I don’t know how strong this possibility is…this court has already inserted itself into national political questions, but since this is a power expressly given over to the states and not the federal government, I’m thinking the Supreme Court won’t take a side, which will make the state supreme courts in each state the final arbiter of the matter.  

Some have already decided, others are awaiting the Supreme Court decision, which is expected in June.

Gay Hotel Owner’s First Statement About Ted Cruz Was Truthful: His Subsequent Apology to His Community About the Meeting Is Not

I’ve been watching the situation between presidential contender Ted Cruz, and a gay businessman who took the opportunity to talk to Cruz about gay issues at his house with some interest.  His initial explanation was that he wanted to address issues between Cruz’s various stands and the gay community.  That was a truthful statement, and perfectly reasonable.

Then the threats of a boycott of the businessman’s business by gay and liberal activists lead to a quick apology and mea cupola from the businessman, who didn’t “understand Cruz’s stands on anti-gay issues.”  This statement appeared to be forced, and a hasty reaction to threats of a boycott, and possible threatened harm to the businessman and his business partner from various communication mediums.

Based on his first statement, I think he was fully aware of the various stands that Cruz had taken but chose to meet with Cruz anyways to have a conversation with the Congressman about it.  The second statement was the businessman trying to save his business.

It’s very unfortunate that liberal hypocrisy is on full display, again, and they’re making it look like the businessman’s fault.   He should be free to talk with whomever he wants, about whatever he wants, whenever he wants and wherever he wants.   Instead, the left is seeking to deny this guy his First Amendment rights about redressing grievances with elected officials, which Ted Cruz is and seeks to be.

Hypocrites!

California’s Environmentalism Has Made Their Drought Much Harder Than It Needed to Be: No New Reservoirs of Water Were Created At a Time When Their Population Doubled, Now They’re Restricting Most Forms of Water Use to Preserve What They Do Have Left

California has known for generations that it is prone to suffer from drought from time to time, yet did nothing to “mitigate the worst effects” of an extreme drought as their population was doubling.  

If those words sound familiar, it’s straight out of the liberal global warming playbook.  Ironic.

California’s water crisis IS a human-made problem, and the blame lies at the feet of environmentalists who have successfully blocked the creation of new water reservoirs in the hardest-hit areas of the California drought.    Now California’s entire population is at risk of not having enough water to drink, prepare food, take a shower, water their lawns and a host of other water issues as the drought continues.

If what NASA is saying is accurate, California will need 11 trillion gallons of water to end the drought.  Put another way, they need 30 billion gallons of rainfall daily for one entire year, without fail.   Or they need something like 12.5 feet of snow to fall on every part of the state during the winter and then melt.

Now they’re having to look at desalinization to turn ocean water into drinking water.  It costs double what it would take to build and run a reservoir, and the reservoir would have superior output, too.

If you want to see what a man-made disaster looks like, California’s the poster child.   I hope the other states are taking notes on what not to do with their environmental policies.

Mother Nature can turn this drought around, as it has before, but it’s going to take a long time to happen.   They won’t get 30 billion gallons of rainfall a day for 365 days without fail.  Nor will they get covered by 12.5 feet of snow in a winter.  

Environmentalism is good, but California’s environmentalism is an example of what happens when liberal environmental politics overrides common sense.

Israel Got It Right Again: Israel Threatens to Sell Anti-Aircraft Systems to Ukraine in Response to Russian Sale of S-300 Anti-Aircraft Missiles to Iran and Russia Blinks

Israel struck a Russian nerve a few weeks ago when it threatened to sell advanced Israeli anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine in response to Russia’s sale of their S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran.

It lead to a Russian denouncement of the Israeli move, Israeli threats to bomb the system as it was being delivered to Iran, and a Russian announcement a few days ago that the S-300 delivery to Iran would be delayed.

Did Netanyahu just force Putin to blink?   President Obama hasn’t been able to do that a single time over any issue.

LEVERAGE!!

Russia doesn’t want Ukraine getting advanced arms that will take a bite out of the Russian Air Force should it launch an invasion of the rest of Ukraine.    And it remembers what happened when the Americans, Israelis and Saudis supplied Afghanistan with American Stinger missiles against the invading Soviet Army in the 1980s.   The Soviets lost in the neighborhood of three hundred aircraft.

Our current government can threaten Russia the same way, but it wouldn’t be the same.   Putin has Obama’s number and will call his bluff every time, but Netanyahu is perceived as a loose cannon by Putin.   Israel is more than willing to answer Putin tit-for-tat, and Putin doesn’t like it one bit.

Because Israel will sell lethal aid to Ukraine if Russia delivers the S-300 to Iran. 

Gore Wants to “Punish Climate Change Deniers” for “Denying Established Science”: Bring It On

Global warming alarmist Al Gore wants to punish people for not buying into his falsified climate change data.

His pal Vice President Biden also said recently that denying climate change is like denying gravity.   Interesting choice of comments, since the science of gravity used the scientific method of proving it, while climate change science has sought to skip the scientific method entirely.

The reason they’re seeking to skip using established scientific principles to prove climate change is that there is a very real possibility that it will be scientifically disproven.   The data just doesn’t support their arguments.  Why else would they manipulate the data?

If Al Gore wants us to buy what he’s selling, his side is going to have to use established scientific methods of proving what he’s saying.

As for his claim of climate change being “settled science”---NO IT ISN’T!   Not by the method that is accepted by the entire scientific community, unlike his global warming hubris.

No one denies that climate change has happened before.  If it hadn’t, we’d still be locked in the last Ice Age.  The region of the country I live in would still be under a sheet of ice nearly three miles thick.   

What is in dispute is the role humans have had in recent times with regards to the ever-changing climate on Earth—changes that would be happening whether we were here or not.  

Consider: humans weren’t around with today’s greenhouse gas emitting factories or cars 15,000 years ago to warm up the planet and cause the glaciers to retreat.

Also in dispute is the role that the sun and volcanic activity plays in the overall process.  Until they figure that out, they have NO business telling us that their version of climate change is “settled science.”   “Settled science” is a political term that has no place in a scientific debate.

If Al Gore wants to punish people for not buying his utter BS, he should go from door to door and do the job himself.   Put up, or shut up, pal.

More Questions Than Answers on Malaysian Airlines MH370 Disappearance One Year On: They Just Announced That the Battery on the Flight Recorders Were Dead Long Before the Jet Disappeared in Further Display of Incompetence

More proof that there are some incompetent fools running Malaysia Airlines…it’s bad enough that MH370 disappeared without a trace a year ago today, but according to a report from the airline, the flight recorder batteries on board the jet expired at least a year before the plane was lost. 

They must have known this information in the days after the flight was presumed lost in the Indian Ocean, but did they even tell the search crews or governments who sent rescue forces about the batteries already being dead?  The on-scene rescue personnel made a huge deal out of finding the wreckage before the locator beacon batteries on the black boxes ran out of power.   These batteries were supposed to last two to three weeks after the flight recorders lost primary power during the presumed destruction of the aircraft.

Yet the MH370 report released by Malaysia Airlines found “nothing unusual about the crew or aircraft.”  Apparently dead batteries on Malaysia Airlines black boxes are nothing unusual.  HUH??!  

What other safety violations are not considered unusual by this airline?

I hope every airline in the world is paying attention to the battery story and doing some checking of their records, and taking corrective action.  

When will the families of the lost finally have some peace?

Utter Hypocrisy: Democrats Call Netanyahu a Child, Then Start Up on the Name Calling…They’re The Ones Acting Like the Children, Not Netanyahu

Judging from the over-emotional reactions from House and Senate Democrats, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu scored a direct hit with his speech.   I thought it was a great speech, and one that the Democrats needed to hear.

What’s wrong with insisting that if Iran wants to be treated like a decent nation, it should start to act like one?  Pelosi was near tears over this statement?

What’s wrong with saying that “the enemy of your enemy is…your enemy?”

What’s wrong with pointing out that defeating ISIS but allowing Iran to gain nuclear weapons would win the battle but lose the war?

I hope Netanyahu’s speech stops the negotiations in their tracks.   It probably won’t, in spite of what the Obama team says.  If a deal favoring Iran emerges, it’d probably be better to scuttle the talks now.

I didn’t think it was a good idea for Netanyahu to quote John Kerry.  Kerry’s the master of double meanings and political rhetoric on a scale comparable to Bill Clinton.   And he’s a bigger observer-in-chief than Obama is. 

If there’s an agreement with Iran, we’ll know for sure if Netanyahu was on target, or if he was flat-out wrong.   Iran won’t honor the terms of an agreement in any case; they’ve already kicked international nuclear inspectors out of the country in the past to protect their military nuclear program.

The louder the Democrats scream about Netanyahu, the more I’m convinced that he hit the nail on the head.  It was a well-crafted speech.

Iranian Navy Practices Sinking a U.S. Aircraft Carrier Mock-Up; They’re Now Prepared to Wage War Against Hollywood Movie Sets

The Iranian Navy celebrated its most recent achievement yesterday as it’s naval forces staged an attack on a barge that was converted to look like an American aircraft carrier.  They managed to blow it up. 

They’re now ready to wage a naval war against floating movie sets.  Hollywood’s in big trouble!

I’d like to see their gunboats go straight at a U.S. warship lined up like that.   One strafing run by an F-18 from off the deck of one of our carriers would make short work of them. 

It’s a good thing they didn’t mistake a real American aircraft carrier with its full battle group for their wooden barge.  That would have made for a huge slice of humble pie for the Revolutionary Guard…every one of their little boats would have been on the bottom of the Strait of Hormuz, and it would have been carried live on Iranian TV.

Iran’s claim to be able to sink every American warship in the Strait of Hormuz or in the Persian Gulf in fifty seconds can only be done in a movie.  Looked like amateur hour with the Iranian Navy.

They’d probably better stick to blowing up movie sets.  They seem marginally proficient at that, even though a lot of their gun hits appeared to hit the water, and not the barge.

See for yourself.

Netanyahu Speech to Joint Session of Congress Should Not Be Cancelled: It Should Go Forward as Planned and He Should Lay Out the Case Against Iran that Obama Administration Has Decided to Ignore at Israel’s Expense

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to Congress should go forward as planned and not be cancelled due to Administration pressure to do so.

The Obama Administration is ignoring Israel’s concerns in an effort to push forward a bad nuclear deal with Iran, and Israel is taking President Obama to task for doing so.  Israel isn’t the one spitting in the Administration’s face; rather the opposite.   Insult after insult has come from Administration officials, who called Netanyahu a “chickensh##” in recent weeks and appeared more interested in attacking our staunchest ally in the Middle East, instead of taking on Iran and other enemies of the United States.

The timing of the speech, which comes two weeks before an Israeli election, is unfortunate, but Netanyahu has been backed into a corner by the backstabbing Obama Administration.

I hope he shows up and tells Congress that he’s not interested in dealing with Obama or his lackeys and that he’ll wait for the next President to take office.   Obama’s one-sided approach to dealing with Israel and Palestine is more responsible for the current state of US-Israeli affairs than Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.

Shame on the Administration!

CNN: “Snub Hurts WH-Netanyahu ties” : WHO CARES?

The Obama Administration is all bent out of shape because Israeli Prime Minster Netanyahu accepted an invitation to speak before both houses of Congress.

Aww, poor Administration.   They don’t like having their toes stepped on, even though they’ve been STOMPING on Israel’s at every opportunity.  How does it feel, Mr. President?  What goes around, comes around.

This President and Administration cannot be counted on to be a neutral broker for peace in the Middle East.   Insult after insult against Israel from this Administration has lead directly to this tit-for-tat response from Israel, which is justified in throwing it right back in President Obama’s face.  I’m glad that Netanyahu accepted the invitation from Congress.

Israel is our ally, and President Obama needs to get off his high horse and reset relations with Israel so that they’re correct.   But then again, we’ve seen how successful his “reset” of relations with Russia have been, so perhaps that isn’t a very good idea after all.  They’ll fumble the ball…again.   Perhaps they’d be better off in staying out of the Middle East peace process altogether and hand it off to the next Administration.

Obama’s treatment of Israel and Netanyahu in particular have been shameful and inept on the part of our Administration.   I hope Netanyahu holds nothing back when he speaks to Congress.

North Korea Doesn’t Have Enough Know-How to Inflict the Kind of Damage That Sony Entertainment Sustained in Cyber Attack: Why the Rush to Blame Them Right Off the Bat?

I don’t understand what’s going on with the FBI statement that North Korea was involved in the cyber attack on Sony Pictures…it’s too sophisticated for a backwards country like North Korea to do on its own, with such devastating precision.

It’s far more likely that China was involved with it, as a demonstration of what it could do if a cyber war were to break out between the United States and China.   The Sony movie was an excuse to throw blame on someone else.

If North Korean hackers were involved, it was with Chinese handlers and hackers sitting right next to them, possibly in Chinese territory due to North Korea’s “limited” Internet access.  

It usually takes months to research who did what, and when, when this level of industrial espionage takes place.   Instead, they rushed out a statement blaming North Korea.   Something isn’t right here.  I’d rather see the FBI take its time in investigating this massive cyber attack, instead of rushing to conclusions that are not supported by the evidence.

North Korea can take its joint investigation and jump off a cliff.

Hydraulic Fracturing is Good, But Oil Prices Should Stabilize to Keep As Many Suppliers in Business as Possible

I’m a supporter of fracking as it’s helped us reduce our dependence on foreign oil suppliers, such as Saudi Arabia and the rest of the crooked OPEC cartel.   But too much of a good thing is NOT a good thing.

In order for everyone to stay in business and to make a profit, the free-falling oil prices need to stabilize at a level that will do two things: allow fracking to supplement our oil consumption needs while alternative energy continues to be explored, and damage OPEC at the same time.

OPEC’s been screwing us since 1973.  The more we can tell OPEC to go screw itself and rely on our own resources, the less we will need to be involved in foreign conflicts to protect our energy interests.   Iran wants to blockade the Persian Gulf down the road?  Let ‘em.  OPEC forces can fight it out with Iran—without our help.

Of course, the reality is that we’ll still depend on OPEC oil and we’ll have to keep a lid on Iran ourselves, if Israel doesn’t decide to turn Iran into a parking lot first.  

Saudi Arabia seems to be flooding the market with oil to lower the prices to drive more American companies out of the hydraulic fracturing business.   I don’t know how to combat that strategy, except to embargo Saudi and OPEC oil.  

Whoever wins this energy scrap will control pricing for years to come.  If we hope for maximized energy independence, Saudi Arabia and OPEC must not win this fight.

Reverend Sharpton Hypocricy: A Reminder of What This Man Has Done and Why He Has No Credibility Now

Media Needs to Stop Trying to Link Ferguson and Cleveland Shootings: Both Are Tragic Enough Without the Political Machine in Liberal Media Trying to Make Matters Worse

On the heels of the violence in Ferguson, a report of a young boy with a fake gun being shot by police in Cleveland moved into the 24-hour news cycle, and almost immediately CNN and MSNBC and other liberal outlets started to link the Ferguson violence with the tragic shooting in Cleveland.

One has nothing to do with the other.   They’re two separate and unique situations.

If ANYONE is waving a real-looking pistol around in front of police and not following police instructions, they’re going to get shot, regardless of what their skin color is.   It doesn’t help that the boy’s toy gun had the bright colored toy identifier pulled out of the barrel, which made it look much more real.

How long will it be before Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton show up in Cleveland, doing their race baiting routine again?  They didn’t help matters at all in Ferguson, and backed the wrong side again.

What Jackson and Sharpton should be doing in Cleveland and around the country is going after toy makers for making such realistic looking handgun toys.   Toys need to look like toys, and not like a real gun. 

If one takes the plastic out of the barrel, the gun below looks real…the cops can’t take a chance that something that looks like this is fake…they’re going to open fire, as they did in Cleveland.

Contrast the above photo to the one below.  The above toy needs lots of green and orange like this one does:

Nerf has the right idea.  Simply putting a plastic piece into the barrel isn’t enough.  That’s what the focus should be in Cleveland, but it’s going to be a race thing. 

Ferguson Shooting Witnesses Who Changed Their Stories in Favor of the Popular Narrative Guaranteed That No Charges Would Be Filed: If Activists Want to Blame Someone, Blame the Pro-Michael Brown Witnesses Who Lied Under Oath

The contrast couldn’t be more stark:

Pro-Michael Brown witnesses changed their stories so that they would match the popular narrative, while the eyewitnesses who supported the Ferguson police officer who shot Brown didn’t.   The evidence supported the witnesses who told the truth and weren’t affected by peer pressure.

Given that information, it’s no surprise at all that a grand jury refused to issue an indictment against the police officer.  How could they? 

Those lawyers who are crying about the grand jury system being “broken” should accept the fact that their witnesses turned out to be a bunch of liars who bore false witness to what they saw.  Some of the witnesses changed their story multiple times, too.  The grand jury system worked as well as it could have under the circumstances.

If there’s a lesson to be learned, it should be that witnesses to something like the Ferguson shooting shouldn’t let others influence the way that they tell their story.  Anyone who changed their story should be ashamed of themselves. 

Navy SEAL Who is Revealing Secrets About Bin Laden Raid Shouldn’t Be: Other SEALs Have Kept Military Secrets for Decades Without Fail; What’s This Guy’s Issue?

I have a lot of respect for the service of our veterans, past and present, for all the things that they’re asked to do in the line of duty.

The Navy SEALs are no exception.  They do the impossible, and make it look easy.  But what happens when one of that elite group starts revealing stuff about classified missions, such as the raid in Pakistan that resulted in Osama bin-Laden’s demise?

He’s been allegedly giving interviews to one magazine for months, and another magazine publicly identified him.  Fox News is getting ready to do a major story on it.  The Pentagon is taking a very dark view of the matter and is threatening to take legal action against any military personnel who reveal operational details.

Just because he’s not in government service anymore doesn’t give him the right to start spilling military secrets.  Some things should be left well enough alone and revealed in 50 years or so.

Retired SEALs and other special operators have kept military secrets for decades.  Why is this guy any different?  I respect what he’s done for our country, but he needs to think about his choices in moving forward from here.

If Republicans Take the Senate, They Need to Do Something About the Disastrous Medical Insurance Law: Affordable Care Act Needs to Either Be Repealed or Modified to Help People Instead of Hurting Them

If the GOP wins big tomorrow, they really need to move the Affordable Care Act to the top of their agenda.  ObamaCare goes too far, and should be modified so that it covers only those people who do not have health insurance, or repealed in whole or in part.  

The astronomical deductibles need to go away too.   $5,000 deductibles make purchasing insurance really hard to swallow.    And the IRS shouldn’t be involved in health care either.

I do like the idea of insurance companies not being able to cancel a policy because someone gets pregnant, or gets sick. 

This should be dealt with before immigration reform.

CDC MUST Take Charge of Ebola Response: State Governments Are Messing Things Up and CDC Is Said to Be “Unhappy” With NJ & NY Responses to Ebola Threat

More evidence that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) MUST take charge of all screenings of travelers coming into U.S. Airports of Entry emerged in the last few days.  Nurses returning from Africa reported that they were treated like prisoners and that officials were rude and insulting to them when questioning was going underway.  And the screenings were not done correctly.

These are Americans who risked their lives to save others and they deserve to be treated with the utmost respect, while at the same time ensuring that they are not sick.  

There has to be a way to respect Constitutional protections while isolating those who need to be isolated.  The answer is probably in better Ebola detection testing.  Waiting 21 days to learn if someone is going to come down with Ebola is too slow.   

We need a test that shows the presence of Ebola in a test subject within a matter of an hour or two at most, at any point during the incubation period.

CDC needs to be on point NOW.

Wait a Minute: ISIS Is Using IRAQI Chemical Weapons??! The Weapons We Went to War Over in 2003? Iraq War Narrative Favored By the Democrats Appears to Be Falling Apart Right Before Our Eyes

I’m really confused.  It’s being reported that ISIS is using captured Iraqi chemical munitions against the Kurds in northern Iraq.   WHAT IRAQI CHEMICAL WEAPONS??!

According to anti-war Democrats and liberals and peaceniks, those weapons were destroyed in the 1990s by the United Nations. 

Yet there are now news reports about a bunker that was nicknamed by U.S. occupation forces as the “Dragon’s Egg” as being under ISIS threat.

Looks like the anti-war peacenik narrative on the reasons for the Iraq War are crumbling to dust right before our eyes. 

I had accepted that there were no chemical weapons in Iraq and that we had gone to war for no good reason, but now there are news accounts of U.S. soldiers finding Saddam’s deadly arsenal.  The liberal media ignored the reports in favor of their own narrative.   And the U.S. military, realizing that the media was not on their side or on the side of the Bush Administration, decided not to reveal all that they had found.

Former soldiers are releasing the information now.   And the media is being forced to confront the photographic evidence, such as in the case of Specialist Richard Beasley, who was burned by mustard gas.

Michelle Obama’s School Lunch Program is Awful: The Food Has No Taste, the Kids Don’t Like It, and Schools Are Abandoning the Program and Federal Money to Purchase Food That Kids Will Eat

“Too far, too fast” seems to be echoing throughout many school districts across the country as the districts struggle to meet Federal standards on school lunch programs.  Some of the districts have opted out of the program to buy food that their students will actually eat.

Having eaten school meals over the last couple of years, including food that the district bought before and after the change in Federal standards went into effect, the food they offered before was better, in my opinion.  The pizza they served tasted like cardboard, no yogurt was available, the healthy choice chips that they offered were bland, and most of the items on their menu would not appear on most home menus.  Bleah!

Cut the sodium, by all means.  Cut the artificial flavoring too.  But they shouldn’t have to sacrifice basic good taste for healthy options.

Ebola Screening Begins at Five International Airports in U.S.: It’s Not Enough

Ebola screenings have begun at five airports that accept international flights: Chicago-O’Hare, JFK, Newark, Hartsfield-Jackson and Washington-Dulles.   It’s not enough. 

It’s said that 90% of passengers in Ebola-ravaged Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia use those airports.  But what if passengers change their flight plans to get past the screenings at those airports?

What if a traveler carrying Ebola comes in at one of the other “Airports of Entry?”  The list is quite extensive as shown here.  Five airports for this screening process clearly isn’t enough.

If Americans have the “right of return” as the director of the CDC has said, then they should return when they’re declared Ebola-free.  Same thing for others who have the right to travel to the U.S. from wherever they are.

I have not seen anything so far to indicate that our government has a handle on the problem.   This band-aid fix may be too late.  We’ll know within a matter of days if there’s a huge problem in Texas.   The Liberian who died there had contact with 46 others who are under observation.  A nurse who was treating him was diagnosed with Ebola last night.

And what’s with this story of the NBC news team breaking quarantine?  If they do develop Ebola and infect others during their violation, can they be charged with some kind of crime?  They are said to be “low risk”, but many would rather see them pass by the 21-day incubation period without getting sick before pronouncing them “low-risk.”   NBC should threaten to fire this crew if they don’t follow orders, regardless of whether they get sick or not.

Ebola is here.  We need a better solution than what’s been done so far.

Vice-President Biden Does It Again: He Had to Call Foreign Leaders to Apologize for His Latest Gaffes

Once every generation, we have a politician who comes along who makes gaffe after gaffe, and makes all prior political gaffe-makers look good by comparison.

That’s what Vice-President Biden is doing for former Vice-President Dan Quayle.  That’s all I’m going to say on that topic.

In the latest gaffes, Biden was forced to call the leaders of the UAE and Egypt to apologize for suggesting that they were aiding the al-Qaeda spinoff group ISIS.  The media seems to be having a field day with it; even the liberal press is jumping on it.  It probably has something to do with a recent poll that suggests Democratic voters prefer Hillary Clinton as a presidential candidate over Joe Biden as a presidential contender by a HUGE margin---70% to 20% in some markets.

Biden really needs to stay away from the cameras and live mikes if he’s serious about a Presidential run.  After this latest royal screw-up, he can’t make any more mistakes while he’s Vice-President. 

Limbaugh is probably counting down the days to launching Operation Chaos II…getting Republicans to vote in Democratic primaries for Biden to derail Clinton.  I think it’s going to happen. 

For a senior politician, Biden isn’t helping the feeling that the Administration is running amateur hour through the Oval Office.   He rivals Cheney in sheer arrogance, and doesn’t have the foresight to see what kind of damage his words cause.

God help us if Biden ever becomes President, either through the 25th Amendment, or if he is elected to his own term as President.  

Why Hasn’t There Been a Full Embargo on Air Travel to Ebola-Hit Nations in West Africa? Huge Screw-Up at Texas Hospital Has Allowed Ebola to Gain a Foothold in U.S.

An “out of the blue” case of Ebola appears to have hit in Texas due to a screw-up at a Dallas-area hospital.

Why was this allowed to even happen?   The outbreak in West Africa was bound to show up on our shores sooner or later, yet our government has no controls in place to contain it, other than to have the Centers for Disease Control to play catch-up.

There’s no air embargo against West Africa in place.  There’s no plan in place to quarantine incoming travelers until they’ve undergone testing and observations in CDC or infectious disease facilities.   And hospitals haven’t been adequately warned.

CDC cannot afford to play catch-up; one man in Texas may have infected a dozen other people, plus untold (and unconfirmed) hundreds of other people who were in close proximity to him during the flight from Africa to the various air terminals.  All of a sudden, we may have a thousand people or more who are at a direct risk of coming down with Ebola.  How many will these people pass Ebola to?

Hopefully the damage that’s already been done will be contained to the people who are directly involved in Texas.    The nightmare scenario is that Ebola cases start to pop up all over the country like a bad case of chicken pox, and thousands more are infected.

The Obama Administration needs to take drastic action to keep this problem from happening again, if the current situation is indeed contained, as we’re all hoping and praying that it is. 

Russian Government Should Stop Blaming U.S. For Russian Inferiority Complex: Get Your Own House in Order, President Putin

The Russian inferiority complex was on full display at the United Nations, with the Russian foreign minister blaming NATO, the West and the U.S. for destabilizing the world and interfering with Russian affairs.

He was referring to the illegal Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory, of course, and the Western and Arab decision to deal with the ISIS problem in Iraq and Syria.   Putin’s also still seething about the Kosovo declaration of independence from Serbia and the quick Western recognition of Kosovo as a new nation.  He’s also angry that the South Ossetian declaration of independence from Georgia has only been recognized by Russia and a couple of Russian allies.

Then there was the statement that the U.S. had to abandon it’s claim of “eternal uniqueness.”  This guy needs to go back to grade school and learn that everyone is unique, and so is every nation.  We teach our Young 5s to play nice with others, and to share.  Russia’s the bully on the playground, taking other people’s stuff and breaking what it can’t have, like a petulant child.  For a Russian strongman, he sure has thin skin.

Putin’s just upset that he can’t pull out the carving knife and start slicing off parts of other nations without economic consequences.  The Russian ruble is down sharply since they started using their carving knife against Ukraine, and that’s probably going to worsen if Russia doesn’t start behaving and being a good neighbor.

President Obama Should Stop Deployment of U.S. Troops to Ebola-Hit Countries: It’s Too Little, Too Late and Not a Proper Mission for the U.S. Military

Mistake after mistake has been made in the fight to contain the Ebola virus currently rampaging across Western Africa, and President Obama made a big one in deciding to send American troops into Ebola-ravaged country to “fight” it.

They have no business there.

Medical professionals are getting hit by the virus as well, so why send ground troops there and expose more Americans to it?    They should have been setting up field hospitals many weeks ago, if they wanted to take that course, but now it’s almost too late.   The victims number in the tens of thousands.  

We need to impose a blockade on air travel to the U.S. and Europe from Africa, to stop the spread of Ebola.  That’s what the U.S. military should be doing.

If Global Warming is “Settled Science,” Then Why Does the Scientific Community Keep Changing the Data Around to Suit Their Needs? This is Why There Are SO Many Global Warming Skeptics---They Can’t Trust The Data That The Alarmists Are Presenting

Global warming skeptics cannot trust any data coming from the global warming alarmists, as the latter keeps changing the data or suppressing new data that proves that their theories are nothing but hot air.

If the data from the alarmists were genuine, they could present it immediately, and without data alterations or changing how they read the information.   And it would be accepted by all—as-is.

The term “settled science” throws out the much-vaunted scientific method, which involves  forming a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis and so forth.   All they’ve given to us is a whole lot of hot air that they themselves have been generating about their “settled science.”

This is what happens when politics mixes with science: HOGWASH!

They prepare hockey stick data, falsified data, omitted data, changed data, ignored data, and when all else fails---name calling the skeptics.  Al Gore is an expert at this, and he’s the worst of the lot.  Then they “correct” the data when skeptics blast the incomplete or incorrect data full of holes.

If they’d simply present their data in an unbiased form, we might be able to come to some kind of consensus.   But the alarmists are trying to ramrod shoddy information down everyone’s throats, in the hope that their half-baked theories convince a public that they hope is dumbed down enough to believe it.

Just present the data—as-is—and let the rest tend to itself.  If the data is truthful, many would be more inclined to look at it.   Those involved with the data manipulation should no longer be involved in the discussion or research.  They’re political hacks, not legitimate scientists.

If global warming is going on, these discredited alarmists have sabotaged their own cause.  They can’t blame the skeptics for that.  The responsibility is theirs.    Does anyone in the alarmism ranks even remember the scientific method?

Biden Uses the “Let’s Take Back America” Quote That President Obama and Secretary Holder Think is Racist: Biden Gets a Pass From the Left on This Too, But the Next Republican to Say the Same Thing Will Be Greeted With Screams of “RACIST!” and “RESIGN!!”

Once again, we see the racial double standard in play on the left.  Vice President Biden used the “Let’s take back America” line that President Obama and Eric Holder think is racist.  And nothing is being said by the left.

This begs the question…is this statement racist or not?   I think not.   This is the line that both parties use when they’re not in power or lose a bitterly contested election.

Another question…who is Biden suggesting we take the country back from?  The liberal arm of the Democratic Party, to which he belongs?  What an excellent idea!   I’ll bet someone in the White House communications office was facepalming when they heard Biden utter those words.

Waiting to see what the left will do when a Republican suggests the same thing down the road.   It’s a no-brainer, especially when Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton get into the act.

Massive Breach of iCloud Security Leads to Hundreds of Celebrities Having Nude Photos Leaked Online: Why Did These Hollywood Stars Use iCloud to Store Nude Photos of Themselves?

The headline should read “Hollywood Celebrities Stupidly Store Nude Photos of Themselves on iCloud” or “Massive Security Breach Exposes Danger of Posting Nude Photos Online.”  These celebrities brought this down on themselves.

I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy for these actors and actresses who naively posted their nude photos in iCloud.   Uploading these kinds of photos for storage purposes?   STUPID!

If someone else uploaded them without the celebrity’s consent or knowledge, then I do feel bad for them, but if they did it to themselves, that’s just too bad.   Internet safety rules and common sense apply to them as well. The top rule is this:

Never post a photo or revealing information you aren’t prepared to have the entire world to see, in high definition and in multiple places.

“Celebrity is as celebrity does.”  And celebrity does stupid!